It has been an unusually slow summer for charters from Mazatlan and this past week was just about as slow as it gets with only 5 offshore trips for the week and 1 super panga fishing day. The blue marlin did pop back up in the fish counts this past week and the overall offshore fish counts reflected 2 blue marlin, (smaller fish at about 200 lbs.) 1 sailfish and 7 dorado and the single super panga fishing day reflected 1 smaller blue marlin, (200 lb. range) and 4 dorado. On September 9,10,11 & 15, 2013, no boats fished from the Marina El Cid's Aries Fleet and I can't remember a period of 4 days with no boats going out. Look for more port closures in the coming days until the weather subsides.

Mazatlan Climate: A mostly cloudy week with off & on heavy rains to light rains from Tuesday thru Sunday, long with some strong surface breezes to 20-plus mph or so, mostly resulting from Tropical Storm Manuel that centered over this area before moving very slowly to the north and up the Sea of Cortez, staying mostly on the mainland side.

Sea Conditions: Excellent sea temps that held at 90-91 degrees. Surface conditions are fairly rough from some strong surface winds and port closures will likely continue a day her & there, through the remainder of the week.

Best Fishing Area: Most of the better fishing for the offshore cruisers was in the 15-20 mile zone out to the southwest of the Marina El Cid. There were so few boats out it was hard to get a good feel for the better fishing area.

Best Bait/Lure: Billfish were taken on both, rigged baits and lures with both working equally well.